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Two rubber bands but it turns out they are made from real rubber, from the secretions of Hevea Brasiliensis, because of its “superior elasticity.” The internet told me that latex, the “milky fluid” from which rubber comes, is distinct from sap. It is a “protective agent, seeping out of and sealing over wounds in the tree’s bark.” I wonder if it means rubber bands break down, and that’s why the mailman doesn’t mind throwing them on the ground? (“The largest consumer of rubber bands in the world is the U.S. Post Office.”)

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Plastic catalog 1-17-12, 7657 SE Stephens St. around the block to Mill, west to 76th Ave. and back two blocks on Harrison St.

Today a gloppy mix of snow and rain pelted Portland, so the dog and I took a truncated walk around two blocks, but the plastic haul seemed the largest yet. This could be because we live near areas that oceanographers would call “collecting points”: the distant reaches of the elementary school yard, the “unimproved roadway,” the abandoned lot overgrown with bamboo.